Light-transmitting metal oxides are used in semiconductor devices. For example, conductive metal oxides (hereinafter referred to as oxide conductors) such as indium tin oxide (ITO) are used as transparent electrode materials needed in display devices such as liquid crystal displays.
In addition, light-transmitting metal oxides attract attention as materials having semiconductor properties. For example, In—Ga—Zn—O-based oxides and the like are expected to be used as semiconductor materials needed in display devices such as liquid crystal displays. In particular, they are expected to be used for channel layers of thin film transistors (hereinafter referred to as TFTs).
TFTs which include metal oxides having semiconductor properties (hereinafter referred to as oxide semiconductors) can be formed by low-temperature processes. Therefore, expectations for oxide semiconductors as materials which replace or surpass amorphous silicon used in display devices and the like are raised.
The use of oxide conductors and oxide semiconductors having light-transmitting properties enables the production of light-transmitting TFTs (for example, see Reference 1).
Furthermore, TFTs including oxide semiconductors as a channel layer have high field-effect mobility. Therefore, driver circuits in display devices or the like can be formed using the TFTs (for example, see Reference 2).